Free Essay on the Difficulties Coca-Cola Company Faced Venturing into the UAE

Diversification not everyone wanted a carbonate infused soft drink in the Middle East. The Coca-Cola Company has had to look for healthier diversifications to strengthen its consumer relationships and produce low carbonated drinks.

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The Arab boycott the 1967 incident thwarted the companys dealings with Israel.

Shortage of female workers in the Middle East, women are restricted from working. This shortage of womens talents creates a development issue.

Obesity in UAE

In the UAE, obesity has become an epidemic, both to adults and children (Mirmiran, Sherafat-Kazemzadeh, Jalali-Farahani & Azizi, 2010). The rates at which obesity is rising in the Middle East is staggering, especially in the Gulf area. According to the International Diabetes Federation, 37 million of the total population has diabetes in the UAE. This number is expected to increase twofold in the next two centuries (Farzadfar et al, 2015, p.300).

What the Coca-Cola Company is doing about Obesity in the UAE

The coca-cola company has funded a research institute with scientists to protest claims that obesity is caused by sugary drinks. This is a strategy of shifting blame on other commodities. In the Middle East, the Coca-Cola Company has created diversified drinks which include fresh fruit juices to satisfy consumers who do not want the carbonated drinks (Brinsden, & Lobstein, 2013, p.327).

GDP of Coca-Cola in the UAE

The Gross Domestic Product of Coca-cola in the Middle East

GRAPH link: http://www.statista.com/statistics/297772/uae-gross-domestic-product-change-percent/

Benefits of the Coca-Cola Bottle Plant in the UAE

Recycling

The Coca-Cola plastic bottles are designed in a way that makes them recyclable rather than being biodegradable. This is because it is more reasonable to make the plastic from raw materials and energy that can be used over and over again, therefore ensuring that the plastic soda bottles can be reused. By using recyclable raw materials, the number of natural resources that are required to produce the beverage bottles is sufficiently reduced. This is better than using a raw material that will degrade as time goes by. The use of recyclable plastic bottles has advantages to the environment and also economically. The Coca-Cola Company is a great supporter of the recycling efforts (The Coca-Cola Company, 2015).

Renewable material

The packaging of the beverage in the Plant Bottle constitutes to about 30% of plant-based materials. Traditionally, the coca-cola plastic bottles are made of petroleum based material. Through the Plant Bottle packaging, 30,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide were reduced. The Coca-Cola Company has a vision of using a plastic bottle that is recyclable and made of 100% renewable raw materials like the plant-based materials. Through the use of the renewable raw materials, waste will be turned into resources (The Coca-Cola Company, 2015).

Carbon footprint

The carbon footprint of a product is basically the amount of emitted carbon dioxide gases and can also contain greenhouse gases. This starts from when the raw materials are obtained, the manufacturing process, usage of the product and finally the disposing of the product. The carbon footprint can also consist of the recycling of the product and its reuse (The Coca-Cola Company, 2015).

Impacts of the Plant Bottle packaging on the citizens in the UAE

Employment opportunities

The presence of the Plant Bottle packaging Company in the Middle East has created a lot of employment opportunities for the people living there. Different workers are needed in different areas of the packaging plant.

Environmental benefits

Since the Plant Bottle uses recyclable raw materials, the environmental resources are saved from exploitation. Recycling is a global measure being taken to protect the environment.

Promoting peace

During the Ramadan in 2015, Coca-Cola decided not to label its products in a move to generate peace. The Plant Bottle packaging read Labels are for cans not people. This helped promote a world without any labels or prejudices (The Coca-Cola Company, 2015).

Economical benefits

The use of plant- based raw materials in the Plant Bottle has many advantages. Using this kind of raw materials is beneficial in cost and this boosts the countrys economical value. This then boosts the livelihood of the families in the Middle East (The Coca-Cola Company, 2015).

The Global Consumerist Culture of Coca-Cola in the Middle East

Consumer goods are always based on the culture found in the consumers country. The importation of consumer goods can have a negative or positive effect on the cultural practices of the consumer. This can cause intrusion of culture and negativity towards globalization (Robins, 2004). In the United Arab Emirates, globalization is often referred to as Americanization. However, the Muslim people in the Middle East welcome globalization. This is because they claim that the Islamic religion is universal and that they should come together to promote a better world (Quattrocchi, 2014).

In the Middle East Community, the Americanization development is criticized. This is because consumption of products in the Arabic countries continues to expand. Therefore, culture amid the consumers is homogenized. Such criticism is detected in the marketing of the Muslim and Turkish soft drinks namely Mecca-Cola and Cola Turka respectively. These soft drinks put across an anti-Americanization point (Ram, 2007, p.465).

Mecca-Cola is an alternative of the original American brand of coke. The American coke to the Muslim and Arab consumers represents cultural capitalism from America. The Muslims and Arab consumers consider this as a way to dominate the Middle East (Garcia, 2001).

Uri Ram (p.468) states that Mecca and Cola [as terms], are strange bedfellows. The brand name Mecca Cola conjures together two iconic images which ordinarily are related to two distinct and even contrasting cultures: the culture of authenticity versus the culture of artificiality. The conspicuous juxtaposition of Mecca and Cola, their hyphenization, so as to speak, evokes questions about the relations between the global and the local, modernity and tradition, the West and the rest, and America and Islam (Ram, 2007,p.469).

This analyzing showed the theoretical advances for the process of globalization. The different perceptions given out on globalization, arguing that a consumerist culture should be able to give out an identity globally. The alleged dispute between the Muslim world and the American culture gives the impression of a challenged global culture (Goodman, 2008).

Cola Turka on the other hand, shows a national image of Turkey. Cola Turka represented the country as a way to show that the people of Turkey were against Americanization and anything to do with cultural imperialism. Cola Turka and Mecca Cola are claimed to use attention seeking strategies to market their soft drinks (Goodman, 2008).

Mecca Cola has become a highly demanded soft drink in Muslim neighborhoods and the Middle East. Some of the Muslim neighborhoods where it is highly requested are found even in the supermarkets of some European states. They include Germany, France and Belgium (Murphy, 2003).

What still comes to mind is the word and image of Coca-Cola, even if the soft drinks have deviated from the original American Coca-cola. It is hard to believe that a product such as Coca Cola can be used to view the perspective on the state of global culture. The perception of identity in global culture should be based upon the cultural practices of the consumers. Culture should be homogenized because this will in turn remove the diverse outcome of consumer-based culture (Tomlinson, 2004).

Conclusion

The Coca- cola Company is a universal corporation that is accepted in most of the countries where it has its branches. Consumers should try not to judge a commodity through their culture; they should instead look at the impact of the commodity on them and in their respective...